[Hillary] Clinton Says U.S. Must Increase NATO, UN Role in Iraq [is it treason YET?]

bloomberg no url | 12/15/3

[NativeNewYorker]

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York Senator Hillary Clinton said the U.S. should use the opportunity created by the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to increase the involvement of the United Nations and NATO in Iraq's reconstruction.

Clinton, a Democrat, called for the U.S. to form an Iraqi reconstruction and stabilization authority -- including the UN and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- to oversee the planned changeover next July to a transitional government from U.S. control.

Clinton said the handoff, coupled with the rotation of U.S. troops in Iraq at that time, may increase attacks by insurgents loyal to Hussein.

``This moment cannot be just about congratulating ourselves,'' Clinton said in a 45-minute speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. ``It should be a moment where we step back and consider how to go forward. What is it we can do today to strengthen our hand?''

U.S. opponents of Republican President George W. Bush's Iraq policies, such as Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, said yesterday that Hussein's capture may be a catalyst for greater international cooperation in rebuilding the Middle Eastern country, as did Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Britain's Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the U.K. envoy to Iraq, said Friday in London that he favored NATO, the military alliance including U.S. and European nations, getting involved in security operations in Iraq, now being run by the U.S.-led coalition that includes the U.K. The UN, Greenstock said, probably would only get involved after nations with troops in Iraq can ensure security.

Major Speech

The Council on Foreign Relations, a policy analysis group, said the address was Clinton's first major foreign policy speech since the wife of former U.S. President Bill Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000.

While saying she was ``thrilled'' with the news of Hussein's capture, Clinton said the U.S. should consider maintaining or increasing current troop levels in Iraq, repair relations with countries such as France and Germany that opposed the war in Iraq and have been frozen out of reconstruction contracts, and use former members of Hussein's Baathist party to aid the reconstruction.

Criticism of Bush

Clinton, who has said she isn't running for president, is favored by more Democrats for the party's 2004 presidential nomination than any of the nine declared candidates, according to a poll taken in October. She would be the pick of 43 percent of 403 Democrats surveyed by Quinnipiac University.

Clinton has been increasingly critical of the Bush administration since returning from a trip last month to Afghanistan and Iraq.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle published Dec. 6, Clinton said Bush has pursued an ``extremist agenda'' since taking office and underestimated the commitment needed to rebuild Iraq with a politically motivated policy. She told the Chronicle Bush has been ``dismissive'' of international assistance in Iraq and should ``level'' with the American people about the cost and sacrifice needed to rebuild the country.

``We need to build a world with more friends and fewer terrorists by examining new ways to enhance and deepen relations around the world,'' Clinton said today. ``The more we throw our weight around the more we encourage other nations to join with each other as a counter weight.''

U.S. `Unprepared'

The U.S. was ``unprepared'' for the challenges of rebuilding Iraq after the war and ``would be further along, have more legitimacy and diminish the opposition and resentment that is fueling the insurgency had we been willing to internationalize our presence in Iraq,'' Clinton said.

She called for the UN to take the lead as soon as possible to oversee the process leading to elections in Iraq next year, and for NATO to send troops to the relatively calm, Kurdishcontrolled northern part of Iraq. That would allow the U.S. to shift forces to the Baghdad area, she said.

Clinton also called for the U.S. to do more to stabilize Afghanistan, including education and health programs, enhanced military forces along the border with Pakistan and support for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Concerning the North Korean nuclear crisis, Clinton said she couldn't understand Bush administration's policy, and that the U.S. should return to an accord to trade aid for agreement not to develop a nuclear weapons program that her husband as president negotiated with the North Koreans in 1994.

[mewzilla]

Why don't we wait to see who was taking money from Saddamn first, Hillie? You want to trust our national security to people who can be bribed and/or blackmailed?

[billorites]

Hideous, carpetbagging, skanky shrew.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

``This moment cannot be just about congratulating ourselves,''

Bush is a modicum of civility in his speech, taking great care not to gloat, and Her Heinous says, "This moment cannot be just about congratulating ourselves..." Bush won't congratulate himself until he is finished cleaning up the messes caused by the Clinton Administration's lack of effort against worldwide terrorism.

[Digger]

Did the bobbleheads at the CFR send her away with kodos? No doubt. Remember these are the elite-types that run the "Two-Party Cartel".

[Bikers4Bush]

Well that pretty much summed it up for me.

[alaskanfan]

While saying she was ``thrilled'' with the news of Hussein's capture, Clinton said the U.S. should consider maintaining or increasing current troop levels in Iraq, repair relations with countries such as France and Germany that opposed the war in Iraq and have been frozen out of reconstruction contracts, and use former members of Hussein's Baathist party to aid the reconstruction.

We would have more troops to put in Iraq if your husband hadn't cut our military so drastically during his administration.

Screw France and Germany. They were the ones that didn't want to come to this dance when they were invited.

[Humvee]

I like the idea of internationalization. Everyone else participates to the minimum amount possible and let's the US continue to do the heavy lifting. Then they can all take full credit when the job is done. Of course with international participation, the job will take a lot longer to complete. But hey, everyone can feel good about themselves, and that's what's important.

[Rummyfan]

The U.S. was ``unprepared'' for the challenges of rebuilding Iraq after the war and ``would be further along, have more legitimacy and diminish the opposition and resentment that is fueling the insurgency had we been willing to internationalize our presence in Iraq,'' Clinton said.

I am so sick of the drumbeat from the Dems to 'internationalize' the Iraq rebuilding effort. As the President said in today's press conference, sixty - sixty! - countries are participating in the coalition. How much more international can it be? Oh, that's right - we need the help of those paragons of Western democracy France and Germany in order for our efforts to be legitimate. Not!

[My2Cents]

Clinton said Bush has pursued an ``extremist agenda'' since taking office

To Hillary, anyone to the right of Stalin is an "extreme right-winger."

[My2Cents]

Sixty countries in the "Coalition of the Willing." Those countries outside this coalition are largely ones that are morally exhausted and have slid into apathy and nihilism. We don't need them, and we don't want them.

[Diogenesis]

Her Royal Highness:"Get me our stolen FBI files on the Ambassadors of Germany, France, and Russia.
Right now."

[funkywbr]

She's just trying to out-Dean Dean!~}

[Eric in the Ozarks]

NATO is dead.

[talleyman]

We can't get the UN involved - they disappeared faster than the Whitewater billing records!

[dirtboy]

New York Senator Hillary Clinton said the U.S. should use the opportunity created by the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to increase the involvement of the United Nations and NATO in Iraq's reconstruction.

Hmmm - the UN has screwed up Bosnia and Nato has screwed up Kosovo. But somehow they're the solution to our problems in Iraq.

[mountaineer]

the U.S. should ... repair relations with countries such as France and Germany

I think it's up to France and Germany to repair relations with us, Hillary. And I think they're going to have to really work at it, too.

[freekitty]

She makes me puke.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" The U.S. was ``unprepared'' for the challenges of rebuilding Iraq after the war.."

This from a woman who had no idea-none,zip,zero,nada-about Monica-even after the tapes and the blue dress.Who,by her own words-was "gasping and gulping for air", writhing on the floor,when her devoted husband told her that she was the last person on the face of the earth,to get the message. Now she fancies herself more knowledgeable than the Joint Chiefs, the Pentagon,the SecDef,military think tanks,world leaders and the intel community.What is she smoking? Her husband's cigars??

[Kleon]

Those cuts were pushed by Dick Cheney during the first Bush presidency, who proposed a gradual reduction of 25 percent in military spending. According to then defense secretary Cheney:

"We're in a position where as secretary of defense I've got a 10-pound defense program and a six-pound defense budget. Somehow we've got to squeeze one down so it fits," he said in 1991.

At the time (after the fall of the Berlin Wall) these cuts made a lot of sense, so I'm not blaming the VP of doing anything wrong, I'm just pointing out how it's often bad to take the "blame Clinton" approach, because it's too easy and dilutes arguments.